Of all the impacts of COVID on travel, one that gets talked about the least is added costs. And a new survey says travellers are just not budgeting enough, underestimating required COVID test costs by 34 per cent.
In other words, they are finding themselves facing a third more expenses than they expected, which is never a fun feature of a holiday.
Opportunity for Advisors
For travel advisors rebuilding their business, there’s a glass-half-full and a glass-half-empty way of looking at this:
On the one hand, testing and other COVID-related expenses add to the overall cost of a trip, and price-sensitive vacationers may choose lower budget trips as a result, which is no help to an agency’s bottom line.
On the other hand, the ability to help clients navigate and educate themselves on new, unfamiliar costs in various destinations as travel restarts, can illustrate the value of working with a travel advisor.
It puts more pressure on advisors to become well-informed on new features of post-COVID travel, but it might be worth their while, as the survey indicates travellers themselves are "unprepared" for new travel requirements.
Travellers Not Budgeting Enough
The revealing survey was conducted by credit card company Capital One in the U.K. While Canada remains under government advice to avoid non-essential travel, the British survey highlights the new costs of COVID travel people from every country need to consider - and if it is any example, how they’re not going to do a particularly good job.
Over 2000 British travellers were surveyed, and the pollsters found that nearly three-quarters have not budgeted enough for COVID testing: only allocating £78 for a pre-departure test when the average cost is £118. One quarter of respondants set aside less than £50 - under half the actual cost - per person.
Making matters worse, the cost of testing varies “significantly” depending on where and when it takes place. In the U.K. airport testing costs average £104 per pax. That’s 30 per cent less than the average £148 for testing in a store.
Canadians also have choices about how to arrange their pre-departure testing, from pharmacies to new, at-airport, private test facilities that have already launched at airports like YYZ.
One report on the U.K. survey points out that timing is a factor in pricing, too, with different travel timelines and destination requirements dictating different timing for testing. In the U.K., the costs can nearly double for the earliest test results, with the average cost of test results in 12 hours or less coming in at £171, compared to £114 for results in 24 hours and just £100 for tests in 48 hours.
That’s per pax, remember, and just for the departure testing at home. Testing for the return trip is a whole other set of arrangements - and expense. Then multiply it for a family of four - and it really adds up.
The survey found that U.K. “travellers are unprepared for overseas holidays – only two in five (40 per cent) of those planning a holiday abroad have found out how many tests they need to take for their trip and return home, while only a third (33%) have found out what additional documentation they need to travel.
“Fewer than three in 10 have found out how far in advance they need to book their tests (28 per cent) or budgeted for the cost of tests (28 per cent).”
Test Costs are a “Significant Barrier to Travel”
IATA has been sounding the alarm for months about the costs of COVID testing impeding the recovery of the travel industry.
As recently as late JUL, it reported results of its latest survey of international travellers indicating that 86 per cent of respondents are willing to get tested, but 70 per cent believe cost of testing is a significant barrier to travel. 78 per cent of respondents believe governments should bear the cost of mandatory testing.
The organization is calling on governments to address the high costs of COVID-19 testing. At the very least, IATA wants governments to permit the use of more cost-effective antigen tests as an alternative to the more expensive PCR tests.
The group also recommended that governments adopt recent World Health Organization (WHO) guidance to consider exempting vaccinated travelers from testing requirements altogether.
